A lot happened in 2025. Robert’s online dictionary claims more than 50 million page views over this period, enough for a large-scale linguistic survey, which implicitly reflects the societal questions and developments of the moment.
Masculinism explodes
In mind, one term stands out very widely. After Alex Hitchens’ escapades in Parliament, the word “masculinism” recorded a jump of around 800% in consultations in one year. It must be said that the movement, which places itself in opposition to feminist struggles, and advocates a systemic and violent domination of men over women, has been talked about a lot in 2025. The broadcast of the series Adolescence on Netflix, the explosion of masculinist trends to shape one’s jaw with a hammer blow and the comments of influencers against politicians have helped to publicize the discourse carried by these followers of a return to radical patriarchy.
Because that’s what it’s all about: contrary to what semantics might lead one to believe, masculinism is not the mirror of feminismhe is the frontal opposition, advocating a return to traditional gender roles and the sexual domination of men. Le Robert defines it as a “set of demands seeking to promote the rights of men and their interests in society to the detriment of those of women”.
Wesh makes purists tremble
The word Wesh is apart in the ranking. This word comes from Algerian French, passed through slang then through pop culture, is used as much to challenge as to greet or mark surprise, which makes this interjection a real Swiss army knife of colloquial language. Le Robert recalls that it has been documented since the 1980s, and that it even made its debut in Petit Robert in 2009.
The legitimacy of the word remains contested, however, and highlights a double discourse that is still relevant: is the dictionary a simple mirror of usage, or a guardian supposed to protect the French language?
A linguistic summary of current events
Behind the words of the year, we find above all the highlights of the news. The word “vassal” borrowed from medieval jargon experienced a peak in research when Emmanuel Macron called on Europeans to refuse “happy vassalization” of the United States. The term was then taken up two months later, in April, when American Vice President JD Vance described Europe as “vassal permanent“.
Robert’s 10 words of the year
- Masculinism
- Conclave
- West
- Eugenics
- Entryism
- Go
- Gougnafier
- Seditious
- Submersion
- Vassal
Same thing for “entryism”, which had already been talked about in 2024 after the comments of Gabriel Attal, and found itself again at the heart of the news with the controversial report on the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in France, presented to the Defense Council on May 21. Concerning “eugenics”, the word exploded with the advertising campaign for the American Eagle brand, in which actress Sydney Sweeney played on the similarity between the expressions “good jeans” and “good genes”. Donald Trump’s recurring comments on the subject have also fueled the debate around this notion, while in France the debate on the right to assisted dying made some fear that the country was sliding into a form of eugenics.
Taken together, these ten words form less an inventory of lexical novelties than a barometer of anxieties and obsessions of 2025.
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